Is Valve Neglecting Dota and CS2?

At the heart of every esports scene lies the community. It all started when a group of players wanted to find out who was the best among them in a video game. Here we are now. Dota 2 and CS2 have become some of the biggest esports communities. But lately, these communities aren’t exactly happy ones.

Is Valve Neglecting Dota 2?

There’s a similar atmosphere in both the Dota 2 and CS2 scenes, which doesn’t happen often. Both communities feel neglected by Valve. When the news broke that there would be no sponsor messages or images in-game during The International 13, many felt like Valve was taking something away from teams and players. The announcement came just a week before the tournament, leaving a bitter taste for many.

Players already felt neglected before that. The Dota 2 community has been vocal about it. The Compendium, for example, has significantly worsened. For the last TI, only $1 million was added to the prize pool from Compendium sales—the worst result since the crowd-funding model was introduced back in 2013. That’s saying something.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Valve held a meeting with teams and organizations at TI10 in Bucharest, Romania. Reportedly, they asked players to be more cautious about what they post on social media because Valve gains no benefits from organizing The International or supporting the scene. It’s not shocking for anyone in esports; Riot also acknowledged that esports is losing them money. That’s why we see the Worlds group stage being played in a studio instead of a stadium.

One thing that always stuck with me is how Valve doesn’t schedule Dota 2 updates in alignment with the esports circuit. I’ve seen tournaments paused multiple times because of new updates. It seems like such an easy issue to avoid, yet it happens repeatedly, even in tier-one tournaments. When you put everything together, it might seem like Dota 2 is not Valve's priority. Despite having 450k active monthly players, the game’s popularity continues to drop each year. To reverse that trend, Valve will need more than just patch notes.

What About the CS2?

On the other hand, CS2 is a relatively new game. Released a year ago, its esports scene is growing, though still lagging behind the CSGO era. Player numbers are solid; it’s currently the most popular game on Steam. Yet the community isn’t satisfied. Professional players like G2’s NiKo and FaZe’s ropz have been vocal about it. Even NAVI’s in-game leader Aleksib mentioned that if you shoot bots in CSGO, it feels crisper than CS2.

Maybe it’s related to Deadlock, maybe not. Whenever a new game comes out, especially one trying to occupy the same space, there’s always tension. Still, players are asking for more frequent updates for CS2.

Despite being released on September 27th, 2023, CS2 didn’t receive anything to mark its first birthday, which disappointed many. Players expected a new operation or a significant update, but nothing happened. Even the legend olofmeister organized a waiting party on his stream for an update that never came.

Another big issue for CS2 is cheating. Without using FACEIT or a similar third-party platform, the game feels unplayable. Waiting for waves of bans every few months isn’t a good enough solution. The CS community has struggled with this problem for years. Even with CS2, we still have the same issue. Doesn’t it feel like nobody cares?

It’s not just the Dota 2 and CS2 communities, either. On September 13th, a petition with 340,000 signatures was delivered to Valve HQ by Team Fortress players under the hashtag #FixTF2, urging Valve to uphold their commitment to the game.

Is Valve neglecting its communities? Only Valve knows the answer, and they’ve remained silent. You could always email Gaben himself and ask—that’s probably your best bet. What every player can do is use the tools developers and publishers provide to report bugs and problems. It may seem pointless to some, but that’s what we have. Being vocal on social media might help, or at least draw some attention. Overall, with just a bit more effort and open communication, players would likely feel much better.